Mexico 1979

 I've lately been thinking of a reunion with all of us going back to discuss old posts and, lo and behold, I received this poem and my response from James.  I don't even remember writing it, which is why I appreciated receiving it.  James, if you or anyone is still in the neighborhood, what do you think of your poem and the response now, a year-in-a-half later!?

taking things personally

by james on 04/14/2008 - 10:15pm

everything-- while everything may 

regard everyone, everything is not about

every one alone; though you forget

that some see the world this way.

you too see the world this way,

revolving around you, and you forget, 

everything and everyone;

is he guilty, as you say?

he is. and you are taking things personally,

and there is no way to keep this

from turning out like this.

even worse than when you see 

yourself as center of the universe, is 

when you see the universe as his.

JAMES, PLEASE DON'T TAKE THIS PERSONALLY

Submitted by Om Effortlessly... on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 12:26am.

                                         I -- taking

This mix of metaphysical and language poem feels like a spelunking into the philosophical regions of unknown psychic territory seeking recognition.  I’m sure everyone will appreciate this poem, but my guess is that many (and I don't mean on this blog) won’t like it, because of what it requires for understanding and resonance.  In short, many might not be able to take this poem “personally.” On the surface, the poem is abstract and its title, `taking things personally,’ is itself one of its few ironic nodes of deception.  How can a poem about something so personal be so abstract?  Well, in my mind, abstraction is not only empty but it’s also relative to one’s level of awareness.  For example, when we reach what has been coined “transpersonal” levels of consciousness, that is, those levels that transcend and are thus superordinate to conventional personal awareness (eg, psychic, subtle, causal), abstraction merely describes aspects of reality that are more universal and less concrete.  God, for example, is this type of abstraction.  However, regarding `taking things personally,’ when emotional experience resonates with philosophical depth, one can indeed feel the poem’s multiple meanings directly.  And through this experience, the poem’s brilliance radiates with meaning.

                                             II -- things

What I love most about this poem is its dimensionality, specifically how it extends in a kind of Spinozan way into different overlapping meanings, all of which play on the very literality and visuality of the words themselves.  For example, “everything” is felt as well as comprehended because the poem extends outward (as if into everything), as if in a house of mirrors to reach other possible meanings.  The discrete, somewhat ambiguous pronouns are also perfectly adapted for the poem’s extensionality.  Though we want to know who the speaker is and to whom he is referring, it really doesn’t matter for many of the meanings of which the poem might revolve around, turn into, or regard.  One thing is for sure, there is an epicenter (both literally and metaphorically) from which a centrifugal energy spirals downward and outward as if the sonnet structure is analogous to a helix or spine.  I playfully and creatively use these metaphors because there is a distinct movement --historically, psychologically, relationally and philosophically –all of which hinge on the terms “turn” and “revolve” in the middle sections of the sonnet.

And then the most beautiful moment of the poem is its ironic attempt at fate, which is, “there is no way to keep this/from turning out like this.”  This is absolutely true and not true, and so irony transforms into paradox (a mode of authenticity). 

The last couplet is brilliant in that it is the perfect narcissistic mirror playing out into the inevitable breaking of the mirror itself through the very reflection on self long enough to see the other outside of self, and both the pain (”even worse”) and insight that accompany the introspective looking. 

                                      III – personally

So, what the hell is this poem about?  Everything?  No, of course not, but everything speaks to the grandiosity the poem’s `I’ is addressing.  The poem for me speaks to a worldview circumscribed by psychological limitations of reasoning.  Its very sweet and clever beginning logical proposition is met with protest.  This I would call: ontology confronts epistemology.  In other words, you may know the world through your grandiose vision of yourself, which you project onto the world, but your logic is unreliable from a level of awareness that has the capacity to discern (“everything is not about everyone alone”) as well as generalize (”everything may regard everyone”).  James, I simply love your ability to integrate the psychological and philosophical.  From this philosophical proposition, James brings the abstract idea underlying experience into experience itself: “though you forget/that some see the world this way.”  The word “forget” is powerful because it speaks to dissociation, the inability to assign emotional significance to an event.  Forget here really doesn’t mean forget, it means incapable.

And then, James takes the same words (with a slight variation, like a light wave) and creates one of many double meanings: “you too see the world this way/ revolving around you…”.  You can particularly see at this juncture why the sonnet form is perfect for this poem (you’ll see it again in the ninth line).  The phrase “revolving around you” is the visual for what the poem is actually creating in meaning (and could make one’s head spin!). 

I love how the poem connects the narcissistic “revolving around you” with forgetting, or dissociation, which, in essence, is a lack of empathy.  An empathic failure which, by the way, makes the (ultimate) referent of the poem forget “everything and everyone” but himself. 

And he is guilty “as you say,” the result of which “you are taking things personally.”  Another double meaning and powerful psychological statement: you can hear the (ultimate) narcissistic subject of the poem shaming the narrator with words we have all heard, over and again, Stop taking things personally!  And yet, we must, because “there is no way to keep this/from turning out like this.”  Clever!  “This begets this.”  A perhaps unwitting play on the Buddhist formulation, “when this is present, that comes to be.” James' version is the pathological formulation of empathic failure.  Because you are you, I have become like you. 

But, redemption and transformation win in this poem and the honesty and courage of looking into one’s inability (and therefore ability) to look inside one’s looking, opens up a repetition and turning in cycles again, until the again is no longer, for it transforms the seeing “yourself as center of the universe,” into the looking inside the seeing “the universe as his.”

After reflecting on this poem, I begin to wonder what this kid can do with napkins.

 I love this poem.

:)

and this response.

Love this blog.

Looking for those insightful, imaginative, creative voices emanating from this special space.

Is anyone there?  Caterina what have you been thinking about recently.

There are few voices now, it is true. Though rarely does anyone speak in this space anymore, I have almost come to appreciate the silence and stillness, which encloses the presence of everyone who was here. Like all the frantic chatter of mind, seen as sparks crackling within a boundless peace.

What have you been thinking about recently?